Thousands of buy-to-let landlords are breaking the law by not putting their tenant’s deposit into a government-backed deposit tenancy deposit protection scheme (DPS), it has been claimed
While landlords are entitled to seek a deposit from tenants as security in case they damage the property or break the terms of a tenancy agreement, deposits taken on ASTs by landlords or letting agents must be protected within 30 days in any one of three government-authorised insurance based or custodial deposit protection schemes operated by Deposit Protection Service (DPS), my|deposits and Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS).
But new research from comparethemarket.com reveals that one third - 33% - of renters know that their landlord has not placed their money into a government-backed DPS.
Somewhat shockingly, one fifth - 19% - of tenants surveyed also claimed that they do not have a contract with their landlord, which could have serious ramifications should any major legal issues arise.
Almost a fifth - 18% - of renters polled claimed to have had money taken from their deposit when leaving a property.
The study also suggests that some landlords can be slow to respond to renter requests, with almost one third - 30% - reporting that they need to chase their landlord when a problem requires fixing, although the research found that the landlord is not always at fault, as barriers to access could account for some of these issues, with 14% renters surveyed required to go through their letting agency in order to contact their landlord.
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What this shows is that the vast majority of landlords do things correctly in all the areas surveyed above. The researchers should stress the positives and advise those tenants with bad landlords what remedies are open to them.
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